A/N: Please review. I haven't had nearly as many reviews as I would have wished. All I ask is an opinion. Flames are welcome, as long as they are not unfounded.
Chapter EightMinutes later, when everyone's heartbeat and breathing had returned to a normal rate, Hermione sat up.
"I did it!" she cried, her voice echoing into the silence. "I taught myself how!"
"That's great, Mione," Ron muttered irritably. "Now let me get back to sleep and sleep off this hangover."
Hermione looked over at Ron, sighed good-naturedly and said, "Everyone, get up! We have to go rescue Harry now."
No one moved. "Fine," she said to herself. "I'll practice with Water."
She cupped her hands, and instantly she had a fine stream of Water running between her fingers. She place done palm on top of the other, as if holding something between her hands, like an insect, and her two hands filled with Water. She stretched her hands out, and the bubble grew. One hand was as far down as possible, the other high above her head. The bubble stretched to accommodate her hands.
Hermione inhaled, and stepped inside the bubble. All sound was cut off. She couldn't breath, but she suddenly didn't need to. She could see perfectly well, but not hear. The bubble melded itself to the shape of her body, fitting her like a second skin.
She watched as Ron sat up again, and looked over at her. His mouth opened and he said something, but Hermione couldn't hear it. But it looked like her name.
She nodded; the bubble was completely flexible, and moved where she did.
"What happened?" Ron seemed to ask.
Hermione decided to talk to him, to come out of her bubble and try to figure out what it was. But, panicking, she realised she didn't know how. Even as she clawed at the second skin around it, it stayed. Ron just stared.
Hermione tried to calm down. Panicking would help nothing. She closed her eyes and pictured her fingers. They were pinching the Water Skin that surrounded her. In her mind, it peeled away easily, then disappeared. In reality, she pinched her fingers just as the ones in her mind did.
The Skin peeled away.
Hermione collapsed on the ground, exhausted. Ron rushed over, trying to see what was wrong with her, and what on earth she had just done. But the only thing Hermione said was, "I really don't know the extent of my powers, do I?" Immediately after uttering this, she passed out, her head slumping right next to Ron.
~*()*~
Ariadne was back, this time bringing food. He attacked it, hungrier than he could ever remember being.
"We really aren't feeding you enough, are we?" Ariadne asked bemusedly. "Either that or your table manners are atrocious and intolerable."
Harry grinned slightly. "The former," he said, between mouthfuls.
"I guessed as much."
They fell silent.
A few moments later, Harry looked over at Ariadne. "Hey, this morning, or night, or whatever time of day it was, did you feel different?"
"What do you mean?" Ariadne asked, looking confused.
"Earlier, did you feel different? Like something was here that wasn't here before?"
"I don't haven any idea what you mean."
Harry paused, trying to think of a way to explain what he had felt. "Well, earlier today, I was sitting here and leaning against the wall. I felt like something had arrived here, something different. It was a strange, but good feeling."
Ariadne stayed silent for a while. Finally she said, "No, I can't say I felt it. Now finish eating so I can take the plate back."
~*()*~
"What happened to her?" Lavender asked. "Why did she pass out?"
Ron looked up. "Well, I sat up, and she was surrounded by a bubble. It was made of Water, so I think she made it herself. It had attached itself to her, like a second skin. And she could move in it, and it moved with her. I stared at her, said her name, and she nodded. Then she started panicking or something, though I don't know why. She tried to take the Skin off, and it peeled away from her body. She collapsed, said, "I really don't know the extent of my powers, do I?" then passed out. That's all I know."
No one said anything. Draco merely leant over Hermione, pointed his wand at her and said, "Ennervate." Her eyelids fluttered slightly, then opened.
"Are you all right?" Ginny asked immediately.
"I'm fine," Hermione said, sitting up and wincing slightly.
"What happened?"
So Hermione told them of her newfound power. "If I do it again could someone, or all of you, shoot hexes and spells and me? I think the Water Skin is a protection against spells, but I may be wrong. If it protects against spells, I may be able to fit all of us inside it, and we would be safe. I know how to get out of it now, so I won't be stuck. Would you?" She looked at them pleadingly.
"I'll do it," Lavender finally agreed.
"So will I," everyone else echoed.
Hermione sent the Water running between her fingers again, and expanded the bubble. She stepped inside the Water Skin once again. This time, the loss of sense was expected.
She saw Lavender hesitantly point her wand at the Skin and shout an incantation. There was a burst of light, but nothing happened to Hermione. The spell was absorbed in the Water. Lavender looked surprised, and Hermione triumphant.
Each person tried at least four different spells. None of them could penetrate the Water Skin.
A while later, Hermione stepped out. The Skin shrank then disappeared, and Hermione was met with stares.
"What's wrong?" she asked, curious to know what was the matter.
"That Water thing is exactly what we need to get into Azkaban with!" Draco exclaimed. "We'll be safe! No spell could touch us. It's a stroke of genius! Hermione, you are a genius."
"I know," Hermione said. "Now, let me see if it's even possible for all of us to fit inside the Water Skin. It should stretch to accommodate us all, but I don't know. But I'm not sure we'll be able to hear each other. But we can try. Come closer to me." Everyone obeyed. "Now, if it works, and we can all hear, we'll look for some way to get inside Azkaban. All right?"
Hermione sent the Water running betwixt her fingers once again, but this time she wanted the Skin to cover more than just herself. It grew larger and larger, and in seconds, they were all enclosed in Water.
"Can everyone hear me?" Hermione called, and her voice echoed and reechoed.
"I can hear," everyone's voices came. They also echoed, as if they were coming through water, which, Hermione mused with a smile, they were.
"How are we going to get in Azkaban?" Ron asked, voicing the most obvious question of all, one they had been avoiding for quite a while.
Hermione opened her mouth, then closed it. "I have absolutely no idea whatsoever," she said finally.
~*()*~
Being a prisoner, even with a fellow fugitive who came to visit whenever she possibly could, gave one a lot of time to think. And think Harry did. For hours each day, or what he thought was day (it was impossible to tell without windows or doors to judge the passing of a day), Harry sat and thought. Harry thought about life, death, love hate, his friends, but mostly he thought about Hermione. He missed her more than he deemed possible. He had no idea what had happened at their wedding rehearsal. All he knew was that just as he had said the words "I do", he had been whisked away and disappeared. He didn't know if Hermione were even alive, or if she were going to pieces. He smiled to himself. Hermione wasn't one to go to pieces. She was probably scouring the earth, searching for him.
Harry stood up, not even trying to resist the need to move. The cell he had been placed in was tiny, and, despite never previously having been, Harry was beginning to grow claustrophobic. He felt restless, and that something bug was going on that he didn't know about.
If something had captured him, presumably Death Eaters, why weren't; they torturing him, trying to gain information or something to that extent?
Harry paced back and forth, back and forth, pondering these questions. When he was unable to think of an answer, he went back to his thoughts on life and death. These were much easier to think about.
But then it hit him. What if none of his questions even had and answer?
~*()*~
"Right, here's the plan," Draco said, after a heated argument on how to penetrate the fortress of Azkaban. "We're just going to waltz right in, because none of their spells can touch us in this bubble thing."
"Unless one of them is also an Element" Hermione said. "Which is highly unlikely but still possible."
"Why is that a problem?" Ron asked. "Why does it matter?"
"Well, think about it," Hermione said. "If one of them were a descendent of Fidelia'ae, she would be Earth. Earth absorbs Water. We would be doomed."
"What? Why?" Lavender cried. "I just explained why. The Earth would absorb the Water and we would be defenceless."
"Well, it's highly unlikely one of them is a descendent of Fidelia'ae, right?" Lavender asked worriedly.
"Right," Draco said decidedly. "Now, are we going to mingle all day, or are we going anywhere?"
"Yeah, let's do it."
They began to walk, holding hands so as not to stretch the bubble too far. But when they reached the gates, they hesitated. The gates would still be taller if Draco stood on Ron's shoulders, Hermione on top of his, Lavender and Ginny on top of hers. They were locked in five different places, but the spells were easy enough to undo. Hermione began the counter curse for the bottom because she was shortest, with Ginny next, followed by Lavender, Draco and Ron. When each lock had been undone, they looked at each other, a bit uneasily.
"On the count of go," Ron said.
"One," Ginny said calmly.
"Two!" Draco shouted.
"Three," Hermione whispered.
"GO!" all five of them yelled, as loudly as the bubble permitted. And the gates swung open, permitting them entrance to the fortress of Azkaban.
Hermione gulped. She was finally here; she was about to get to Harry. But she was terrified.
